Hearing Miss Bai insult Prince Liang, Tong Ji could no longer endure it. Ignoring the pain in his chest, he stiffened his neck and shouted: “You’re nothing but a barren old woman who can’t bear children! Our Highness being devoted to you… It’s a blessing you’ve cultivated over several lifetimes! In this entire capital city… besides our Highness, who else would rack their brains just to marry you! Our Highness has such deep feelings for you?! How can you be so ungrateful!”

She smiled coldly—it was good that Tong Ji had admitted it.

Her voice was cool and unalarmed, yet carried extreme coldness: “That day in front of my Bai mansion, wasn’t I clear enough? Even if Prince Liang is a prince, I, Bai Qingyan, simply look down on his petty conduct. I would rather marry a pig or a dog than marry him! Not only does Prince Liang not reflect on himself, but he becomes even more excessive, his methods increasingly sordid. Does he have even a shred of shame left? He’s simply a beast in human clothing!”

Hearing Bai Qingyan curse Prince Liang, Tong Ji was filled with rage, his eyes splitting with fury as he roared hoarsely: “You call our Highness a beast in human clothing! I think you’re the one who’s worse than pigs and dogs with a wolf’s heart and dog’s lungs! You’re completely unworthy of our Highness!”

“I’ll beat you to death for your foul mouth…”

Just as Bai Jinzhi was about to step forward in anger, she was firmly held back by Bai Jinxiu. Bai Jinxiu’s voice was clear and steady: “Since you think my elder sister is unworthy of Prince Liang, and my elder sister also looks down on your Prince Liang! Why do you bother making this trip for Prince Liang, harboring sinister intentions to do such things that ruin people’s reputations? What you’ve done… is unrighteous! As Prince Liang’s servant, instead of advising your master to act honorably, you assist the tyrant in his evil deeds—this is disloyalty! You, such a disloyal and unrighteous wretch… what qualifications do you have to insult my elder sister?!”

“Grand Princess… First Miss!” Chun Yan cried out, “His Highness has sincere feelings for First Miss! Please, Grand Princess and First Miss, see clearly! This servant did all this thinking of First Miss’s future! First Miss has difficulty bearing children—which noble family in this capital would be willing to take such a wife?! Only His Highness… whether the Duke’s mansion is illustrious or has lost its glory with all the men deceased, His Highness has never changed his devoted heart toward First Miss! First Miss, think carefully—in this capital besides His Highness… who else would go to such lengths for First Miss!”

Such deep affection, such painstaking efforts, all just to marry his beloved, as Chun Yan said… even when the Duke’s mansion’s glory was gone, Prince Liang’s original intentions toward Miss Bai remained unchanged. This… should count as deep affection, shouldn’t it?!

Among the common people, those with soft hearts were already moved.

“What a Prince Liang! What painstaking efforts! I never knew there were people in this world who would regard sordid conduct as deep affection!” Dong Qingyue’s brow was filled with anger.

“From what you’re saying, as long as someone is willing to use schemes for the elder sister’s sake, the elder sister should thank him for his deep affection. No matter what he does, even if it ruins elder sister’s reputation or falsely uses grandfather’s name to force marriage, elder sister should be grateful and compliant? Whose reasoning is this?!” Bai Jintong was filled with rage, her voice rising at the end.

“Your Prince Liang doesn’t take the honorable path of sending matchmakers to the door, but repeatedly engages in such petty conduct, and still dares to speak of seeking to marry my daughter as his legitimate wife! It’s preposterous!” Dong Shi could no longer contain her anger. “Has my Bai family ever blocked Prince Liang’s matchmakers?! Sullying someone’s reputation is like harming their life—such devoted affection… my daughter truly cannot bear it!”

Remembering Bai Qingyan’s instructions in the carriage, Bai Jinzhi shook off Bai Jinxiu’s hand and stepped forward to snatch the several unopened letters from Chun Yan’s hands: “I want to see how Prince Liang expresses his feelings to my elder sister in these letters, and why they can’t be opened to read!”

As she spoke, Bai Jinzhi had already torn open one of the letters and read aloud: “Duke Zhenguo, your esteemed letter received with respect. Jin’s southern border troop formations…”

“This isn’t a love letter to elder sister!” Bai Jinzhi immediately remembered what her elder sister had said in the carriage, instantly widening her round eyes as she looked up at Grand Princess and Bai Qingyan. “Prince Liang… he wants to frame grandfather for communicating with enemies and betraying the Kingdom—that’s why he had Chun Yan put the letters in grandfather’s study!”

Bai Qingyan’s eyes darkened, her gaze cold to the bone as she looked at Chun Yan, who was crying breathlessly, gritting her teeth: “Continue reading!”

“Jin’s southern border troop formations, our king already knows. We respectfully dispatch General Wang Yuanzhe to discuss grand strategies with Western Liang’s General Yun Poxing… Duke Zhenguo’s letter, after we reviewed it, we returned it intact. We hope Duke Zhenguo can rest assured—we absolutely will not leave any future troubles for Duke Zhenguo.”

After Bai Jinzhi finished reading, she indeed found another letter in the envelope, but… that was not Duke’s personal handwriting.

“Grandmother! There’s another letter attached behind… but it’s not grandfather’s handwriting at all!” Bai Jinzhi said.

Grand Princess’s hands were trembling: “Bring… bring the letter here!”

Bai Jinzhi took three steps to deliver the letter to the Grand Princess’s hands.

“This is… this is Emperor Gaozu’s handwriting?!” As a legitimate princess of the imperial family, Grand Princess had naturally seen the extremely rare surviving handwriting of Emperor Gaozu kept in the palace.

After Grand Princess read that so-called personal letter from Duke, Bai Qingyan also took it… as Bai Qingyan expected, that letter was indeed in Emperor Gaozu’s handwriting.

Prince Liang truly didn’t disappoint her!

The letter not only detailed her grandfather “Duke Zhenguo’s” troop formations to Prince Nanyan, but also claimed that bringing his seventeenth son to battle this time was to firmly control military power in the Bai family’s hands, to make the Bai family the uncrowned kings of Jin.

Every word and sentence hit precisely on the emperor’s suspicions about the Bai family. No wonder… in her previous life, the emperor’s decree to punish the Bai family was so thunderous.

Her heart’s blood surged as she knelt before Grand Princess: “Grandmother, the night before the second sister’s wedding earlier this year, Prince Liang asked Chun Yan to invite me to meet under the pretext of borrowing military books annotated by Grandfather. What I gave Prince Liang were military books personally annotated by Emperor Gaozu, hoping Prince Liang would understand that my Bai family didn’t wish to have any dealings with Prince Liang! Prince Liang’s servant just admitted this—I don’t know… whether Prince Liang mistook that for grandfather’s handwriting and imitated it to harm my Bai family!”

Her eyes filled with tears: “Everyone says Prince Liang is cowardly and incompetent, but with such conduct… where is he incompetent?! Prince Liang’s goal isn’t to force marriage—he wants to overthrow my entire Bai family! What grudges or enmity does my Bai family have with Prince Liang that he would be so ruthless as to go this far? My Bai family’s men all sacrificed themselves for the Kingdom, yet he still wants to frame the Bai family spirits with treason! He still wants the lives of my Bai family’s widows! Today, fortunately, Yin Shuang discovered Chun Yan’s secret meeting with Prince Liang’s servant—otherwise… the consequences would be unthinkable!”

This matter was too grave!

So grave that Grand Princess’s heart grew colder and colder!

If Nanny Tong hadn’t discovered Chun Yan’s secret meeting with Prince Liang’s servant today and captured them both, once these letters entered the Duke’s mansion, then… the Duke’s mansion would be unable to clear itself even with a mouth!

The common people throughout the street were also greatly shocked—what a venomous Prince Liang!